1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an electrical generator and battery, and, more particularly, a mechanical flow battery. The mechanical flow battery comprises a flywheel and has the structure of gyroscope so that the spinning axis inside the flywheel system can be isolated from any outside gyroscopic forces. The present invention also relates to a variable-volume-controlled container as an air source to drive the spinning axis inside mechanical flow battery.
2. Description of Related Art
Flywheel system has been known to us for many years. Flywheel system works by accelerating a rotor inside the flywheel to a very high speed and maintaining the energy in the system as rotational energy. The energy is converted back by slowing down the rotor. The high-speed rotor is sensitive to any outside angular momentum, which limits the flywheel system to be placed on a moving platform. The structure of gyroscope is employed to solve the problem.
A typical flywheel system is briefly introduced first. FIG. 1 has shown a typical flywheel system in cross view and it comprises a motor 102, a rotor 101, a spinning axis 106, at least a permanent magnet 107, a plurality of bearings 110, at least a conductive coil 149 and a housing 113. The motor 102, the bearings 110 and the conductive coils 149 are fixed with the housing 113. The rotor 101 and the permanent magnet or magnets 107 fix with the spinning axis 106 which is positioned by the bearings 110 and which is driven by the motor 102. The rotor 101 and the permanent magnet or magnets 107 rotate when the spinning axis 106 rotates.
Due to the extremely high rotating speed of the spinning axis 106 and in order to reduce the aerodynamic loss and frictional loss, the housing 113 containing the spinning axis 106 is always highly vacuumed, and noncontact, magnetic bearings are employed. The motor 102 is used to rotate the spinning axis 106 and it might go thru a gear box and an one-way clutch to the spinning axis 106. The gear box is for compensating the differences between the motor and spinning axis, for example, the differences could be their sizes of the spinning things, their speeds or even their centerings. The one-way clutch is used to let the motor 102 drive the spinning axis 106 and prohibit the spinning axis 106 from driving the motor 102. The gear box and the one-way clutch can be neglected if there are not needed. When the spinning axis 106 rotates the conductive coils 149 on the housing 113 output electricity. The permanent magnet or magnets 107 can also be realized by an input current flowing thru the conductive coil or coils. The gearbox and one-way clutch are not shown in FIG. 1. The typical flywheel system is a known technology for years so that it will not be explained too much here.
The structure of a typical gyroscope is briefly introduced in FIG. 3 which is found on the website of Wikipedia. A typical gyroscope shown in FIG. 3 includes a spinning frame, a nutation frame 372 and a precession frame 373. The spinning frame defined by a spinning axis 306 which is held by a frame 313 and which is fixed with a rotor 301. The rotor 301 rotates when the spinning axis 306 rotates. As we know that the rotating rotor 301 can be isolated from any gyroscopic torque by the structure of gyroscope. The principle and structure of the gyroscope has been known to us for years.